| 1. | He thought awhile, and then asked his crew if it was not time to slacken speed. - from Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne |
| 2. | At last the breeze came the schooner sidled and drew nearer in the dark I felt the hawser slacken once more, and with a good, tough effort, cut the last fibres through. - from Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson |
| 3. | D'Artagnan imagined that on arriving in town the duke would slacken his pace, but it was not so. - from The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas, Pere |
| 4. | The mutineer was the bowsman of the mate, and when fast to a fish, it was his duty to sit next him, while Radney stood up with his lance in the prow, and haul in or slacken the line, at the word of command. - from Moby Dick; or The Whale by Herman Melville |
| 5. | Elizabeth could never address her without feeling that all the comfort of intimacy was over, and though determined not to slacken as a correspondent, it was for the sake of what had been, rather than what was. - from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen |
| 6. | Suddenly the threads that moved them began to slacken and become entangled and it grew difficult to move. - from War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy |
| 7. | Just while I was meditating, a puff came, caught the HISPANIOLA, and forced her up into the current and to my great joy, I felt the hawser slacken in my grasp, and the hand by which I held it dip for a second under water. - from Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson |
| 8. | But, imperceptibly, though I held by them fast, Joe's hold upon them began to slacken and whereas I wondered at this, at first, I soon began to understand that the cause of it was in me, and that the fault of it was all mine. - from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens |
| 9. | It might be thought that, in his anxiety, he would be constantly watching the changes of the wind, the disorderly raging of the billows--every chance, in short, which might force the Mongolia to slacken her speed, and thus interrupt his journey. - from Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne |
